Brewery Launching In Boston Innovation District This Summer, Trillium Brewing

Article Originally appeared here

By Kyle Aspach

One new micro-brewery is set to open in the South Boston Innovation District this summer, while a second is being eyed for South Boston in the next few years as demand continues to surge for specialty craft brews.

Trillium Beer - Trillium Brewing Company Boston

The first is Trillium Brewing Co., which plans to open by August at 369 Congress St., said co-owner Esther Tetreault.

The business will be one of the few breweries in Boston proper, joining Sam Adams maker Boston Beer Co., Harpoon Brewery, Boston Beer Works and Rock Bottom Brewery.

(See correction below.)

“The Seaport District used to have a lot of breweries, so that was kind of the idealistic part of the concept — bringing Boston a little bit back to its roots,” she said.

The Innovation District, in particular, was an ideal location for the business — offering “affordable light industrial space in the most up-and-coming part of the city,” Tetreault said. “We had to grab it.”

Tetreault and co-owner (and husband) JC Tetreault have had the space under lease for 14 months while they pursued a building permit, which just came through. The couple has been brewing for the past six months at Innovation District startup incubator Greentown Labs, where one of the startups, solar chiller company Promethean Power Systems, has built a component for the Trillium brewing system.

Demolition work has already taken place at the Congress Street site, and construction is expected to start on the 2,300-square foot space in the next few weeks, Tetreault said.

The plan is to start gradually with production, even though the company has gotten a lot of interest in carrying the Trillium product through events featuring the beer at Greentown and word-of-mouth, she said.

Initial production will go to a handful of select bars in the Boston area, including the Publick House in Brookline, and some stores, she said.

Offerings will include four year-round brews along with seasonal beers, with a big emphasis on using hops and grains grown in Massachusetts, Tetreault said.

Tetreault and her husband both have full-time jobs and plan to hire a full-time and part-time brewer for the operation.

The Brookline couple is also expecting their second child in June (their first child is a year-and-a-half old). “It’s going to be pure madness,” Tetreault said with a laugh.

Trillium, named for a hardy native New England flower, has been bootstrapped, and Tetreault plans to keep it that way. “This is our son’s legacy right here,” she said.

Meanwhile, the second brewing business looking to get going in South Boston is Critical Mass Brewing Co. Co-founder Adam Romanow said the business plans to have a Massachusetts contract brewer do the initial production of the company’s brews.

The goal is to be putting beer in people’s hands by the end of summer or start of fall, Romanow said.

The brewery is formally kicking off Thursday night with a tasting event at the Boston office of education startup Boundless Learning. The sold-out event will serve as something of a beta test for the brews. “We’re hoping to get some feedback that we can take back to the lab,” said Romanow, who previously worked as an apprentice at White Birch Brewing in New Hampshire.

Critical Mass has viewed a few properties in South Boston, where Romanow lives, as possible sites for the micro-brewery. The sites are located in the area between the Andrew and Broadway MBTA stations, with the waterfront Innovation District neighborhood likely out of the company’s price range, Romanow said.

The goal is to get the brewing off the ground and get Critical Mass established as a brand, Romanow said, so the operation could qualify for the financing needed to open the brewery.

The company probably will need two to three years before it’s ready to open the brewery, he said.

But that’s not for lack of help from other local brewers.

Romanow, who has been home brewing for two years, said he’s gotten to know the Tetreaults and other brewers, such as the Mystic Brewery in Chelsea.

“It’s a really tight-knit community,” he said. “We’re all theoretically competing for business, but everyone has been so collegial and willing to help each other out.”

Correction: My original post failed to mention Boston Beer Works and Rock Bottom Brewery, and also missed the fact that a number of breweries have opened and closed in Boston in the past 20 years.

AllianceViews

Fort Point Channel: Nicer for Noses, Better for Boats!

Article Courtesy of:  Boston Preservation Alliance - POSTED BY: SARAH KELLY

Carole Charnow, President of the Boston Children’s Museum; Mayor Menino; Senator Jack Hart; Danielle Pillion, Executive Director of the Friends of Fort Point Channel; and Boston City Councilors Bill Linehan and Felix Arroyo sound off air horns to celebrate the Fort Point Channel dock opening / Video Credit: Boston.com

Boston’s Fort Point Channel is a a lot less stinky and a bunch more fun thanks to the City of Boston, and the many nonprofit organizations, residents, and property owners that have worked for many years to clean it up and create opportunities for public enjoyment.

That’s why it was so exciting to attend the Annual Meeting and dock opening ceremony for the Friends of Fort Point Channel, a fantastic organization on whose Board of Directors I am privileged to serve.

Mayor Menino and Senator Jack Hart joined us for a celebration of the five boating docks that have just opened for the season.

All of these docks have been built in the past decade, following the vision laid out in the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s 2002 Watersheet Activation Plan for the Channel.

Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan

Image of the Future from the Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan / Image credit: Goody Clancy

The maritime industrial past of the Channel lives on.

It is evident in the historic seawall, the warehouses that have been preserved along its edges, and the historic bridges that still span it.

But after decades of decline, it is getting a new life.

No longer a polluted “no man’s land” the Channel is finally becoming what the writers of the Activation Plan hoped it would be: Boston’s Next Great Place.

SARAH D. KELLY

Executive Director

Sarah D. Kelly has been Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance since January 2006.

Under Sarah’s leadership, the Alliance has embarked on an ambitious agenda to bring awareness regarding Boston’s built and cultural heritage to a broader audience and to better integrate historic preservation into Boston’s real estate development and city planning activities.

A major priority for Sarah has been to implement new programs, including neighborhood preservation education to bring historic preservation services to traditionally underserved communities.

Sarah holds a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master of City Planning from MIT.

She lives with her husband in East Boston.

Article Courtesy of: CBS Boston

Five Things To Do In Boston’s Fort Point, Seaport Neighborhood

The Fort Point/Seaport neighborhood is THE up-and-coming neighborhood in Boston.

In the past few years, a number of businesses have begun to transform the area that was once housed a bunch of abandoned mills, factory buildings, and parking lots.

How things have changed.

Here are five ways to keep yourself busy while you’re there.

Eat & Drink

(credit: Sam’s at Louis via Facebook)

Here’s the thing: Fort Point was off the beaten path for a long time. For the most part, any restaurant daring to set up shop in the area would have to be good in order to draw clientele.

Now, with more than a dozen fantastic spots to dine, the neighborhood is quickly becoming a very popular dining destination.

Some of our favorites include Drink, Sportello, Blue Wave Cafe, Tamo Bar, Yada Yada, and the popular waterfront spots like Sam’s, Atlantic Beer Garden, Legal Harborside, and Temazcal.

And under the ‘drink’ category, we’d be remiss to leave out the Harpoon Brewery. They offer weekday tastings and weekend tours (info available here).

And according to reports, they’re planning to renovate and expand the visitor center.

(Photo Credit: fortpointarts.org)

Shop

Made In Fort Point (FPAC) Store
12 Farnsworth St.
Boston, MA 02210
617-423-1100
website
Hours: Mon- Fri 11am-6pm Saturdays 11am-4pm

This co-op sells art, designs and crafts that are made right in the neighborhood by members of the Fort Point Arts Community.

(Photo Credit: Institute of Contemporary Art Boston/Facebook)

Visit A Museum

Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Ave.
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 266-5152
Website & Admission info

The breathtaking design of the building alone is enough reason to visit.

Exhibits from artists all over the world rotate through this four-story museum.

Insider note: ICA Boston offers free admission on Thursday evenings (and on Sundays for families).

Boston Children’s Museum
308 Congress St.
617-426-6500
Website & Admission info

Boston Children’s Museum features three floors of interactive exhibits aimed at kids but equally as entertaining for adults.

There are loads of excellent permanent exhibits, including the New Balance 3-story climbing structure, where your kids can burn off their energy while you sit by and watch them.

There are a number of rotating exhibits as well.

(Photo Credit: Boston Fire Museum)

Boston Fire Museum
344 Congress St.
617-482-1344
Website & Hours (Free Admission)

This century-old fire station houses a huge collection of old fire department photos dating back to the 1800s, along with historic fire equipment exhibits, trucks, pumps and all kinds of other cool items.

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
Congress Street Bridge
Boston, Ma 02127
website and info

Set to open in June 2012.

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum will showcase one of the most famous events of the American Revolution.

Enjoy the Waterfront

The sights, smells and sounds along the waterfront are nothing short of breathtaking.

The city has developed a beautiful chain of parks connected by the newly built Harborwalk.

Highlights along the Harborwalk include the city skyline, ships sailing in the harbor, and jets taking off from Logan Airport.

Around the corner at Black Falcon Cruise Terminal, cruise ships set sail most often on Sundays.

If you’re a fan of fishing, all the way at the end of Black Falcon Avenue and directly across the water from Logan Airport is a dock that the locals use for saltwater fishing.

Massachusetts requires saltwater anglers to have fishing licenses (which you can obtain here).

Rock Out

Lucky’s Lounge
355 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 357-5825

Lucky’s Lounge nightclub on Congress Street has a fantastic 50’s vibe to it and features live music most nights of the week.

Bank of America Pavilion
290 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 728-1600

If you’re looking for more recognizable artists, Bank of America Pavilion hosts some of the most well-known musical acts in the country (and beyond).

Article Courtesy of: CBS Boston

Builder lays out plans for Seaport boutique hotel

By Greg Turner |  http://www.bostonherald.com

The hotel headed for the sprawling Seaport Square project will offer 135 luxury rooms overlooking the Fort Point Channel, a pedestrian plaza linking the Boston Harborwalk and a publicly accessible rooftop terrace with commanding views of the downtown skyline.

In a filing with state environmental regulators, developer Norwich Partners detailed its $50 million plan for a “premiere facility of public accommodation” located, fittingly, on Sleeper Street next to the Barking Crab restaurant.

The six-story boutique hotel’s first floor will include a restaurant or cafe with outdoor seating, a public lobby where visitors can wait for a water taxi, and a 1,200-square-foot civic space that could become the new home of the Fort Point Arts Community.

Norwich Partners indicated it has offered to dedicate the space, through a lease agreement, to the nonprofit artists group for its offices, gallery and “Made in Fort Point” store.

The developer, which could not be reached for comment, expects to start construction late this year and finish the hotel in the summer of 2014.

“The project represents a long-awaited opportunity to revitalize a significant gateway site within the South Boston waterfront area,” the developer said in its filing with MassDEP.

Norwich acquired the site, known as Parcel A, from Seaport Square developers John Hynes and Morgan Stanley for nearly $9 million in December.

The Barking Crab — which in 2008 rejected Hynes’ push to relocate the seafood restaurant to a planned building nearby — has been coordinating with Norwich on the hotel plan.

Old Sleeper Street, now the Barking Crab’s parking area, would become a pedestrian plaza connecting the Harborwalk. The eatery would share loading and waste facilities with the hotel.

Robert Webb, the Barking Crab’s director of operations, said in a statement that the hotel and other Seaport Square projects “will bring new energy and excitement to the historic Fort Point Channel.”

While its design and name are still being finalized, the hotel is on track to join Marriott’s luxury “Autograph Collection.” The plans call it the “Boston Waterfront Autograph Hotel.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1061118910

At Fort Point studios, artists feel betrayed

By Geoff Edgers | Article Courtesy of: The Boston Globe

(PHOTO VIA DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF)

David Rogers wrote the infamous note on Valentine’s Day. He was scrambling to leave the office at 15 Channel Center St. to take his wife to Legal Sea Foods when two artists stopped him.

He continued: “The majority of the people we are protecting are under 20 years old and have signed up for military service to earn money for college. They are not living off their parents, trust funds, welfare, or mooching off the American taxpayer like many of the residents of this building.’’

The conflict between Midway’s residents and Ops-Core boiled over last week in a packed, three-hour-plus community meeting. The battle, though, is rooted in the larger and more complex history of Midway Studios, and of the city’s efforts to create an affordable enclave for artists. It is about the hope the complex offered when it opened in 2005 and the failure to deliver on its original promise that residents would be able to eventually buy the spaces in the building they were renting.

“Midway is a complete disaster,’’ says Nicholas Ortolino, 42, an assistant professor of industrial design at Wentworth Institute of Technology and a Midway Studios resident since 2005. “It was nothing but a bait and switch.’’

Others disagree and stress that despite some of the problems encountered after the opening, the building has made Fort Point better.

“Did Midway turn out the way we originally envisioned? No,’’ says Cheryl Forte, a former manager for the project. “But is it better that Midway Studios exists today? I’d say yes.’’

Rogers’s blowtorch of a message aggravated the artists’ feelings of betrayal, and added to the distrust of Keen Development, the building’s landlord. A week later those feelings further intensified when a crew hired by Rogers to refinish floors failed to properly vent the space. Polyurethane fumes poured into the brick studios. Some artists were driven out overnight.

Two days later the Boston Redevelopment Authority forced Ops-Core to stop work while it examined its plans. And a group of about a dozen residents gathered in filmmaker Raber Umphenour’s sixth-floor space, with Rogers’ response very much on people’s minds.

“That letter speaks to the capacity of the recklessness,’’ said Umphenour, who lives on the sixth floor of Midway with his wife, Jenni. “If somebody who is leading a business can speak that way to the neighbors, it’s not hard to see how they can take reckless actions to send fumes through the building.’’

New affordable studios

The e-mail went out on April 28, 2004. Heidi Burbidge, a BRA senior project manager of the artist space initiative, had great news. A new building would offer 89 studios for artists to live and work. These spaces, she wrote, would be rentals for five years and then available for sale as a co-op, meaning the studios would be affordable. Plus, the building would have theater and rehearsal space, office and retail areas for arts organizations, and a café. Marsha Kartzman, an artist in her mid-50s at the time, signed up right away.

“It was just perfect,’’ she said. “I wanted to live in a community of artists. It was an area I know. I was finally going to be able to own something. The first few years were exactly like that. It was fantastic.’’

David Rogers also signed up. He had started a graphic design company in the early ’90s called Artisent in a one-room studio on Melcher Street. Soon after, he added Ops-Core, a company that manufactured the military helmets. As work increased, Rogers moved to Summer Street and Congress Street. Then Midway opened.

The building represented hope for artists struggling to hold on as renovated factories were turned into pricey condos. The key player was Bob Kuehn, a Yale graduate turned developer who specialized in affordable housing and mixed-use developments. He founded his company, Keen Development — a play on his name — in 1976 and had developed West End Place, Anderson Place, and the Baker Chocolate Factory, among other projects.

Kuehn borrowed $18 million to pay for the renovation. Despite the financial challenges of taking on a building with so much affordable housing, he dismissed the advice of a consultant who told him he would never make the theater space work financially.

The spaces at Midway were far from luxury. Walls were primed, not painted, and renters were expected to make their own improvements. They didn’t mind. In those early days, the project, with offers of eventual ownership in brochures, attracted a range of artists, from Fort Point veterans to newcomers.

Eric Levin, a 28-year-old photographer, found a 1,500-square-foot unit that he could barely afford. He split the $1,825 a month rent with a roommate and, three years after moving in, struck a deal to rent a downstairs commercial space for his photography business. He also began to make internal calculations about the conversion of Midway to co-op. Numbers were being thrown around, and it looked like he might be able to get his unit for just over $200,000.

He wasn’t the only one doing the math. Kartzman, Rogers, and a group of early residents were also excited. They assumed their chance to buy would come in 2010.

Unkept promise

The trouble, for Midway, started in the summer of 2006. That’s when Kuehn died of a heart attack.

Daniel Taylor, the executor of Kuehn’s estate, and others discovered an important overlooked provision in the terms of the original loan. The housing bonds required a 15-year waiting period before the rentals could be sold.

The discovery created a rift between Keen and the artists, who couldn’t believe that a provision so blatantly at odds with the original promise of the Midway could have been an honest error.

“Nobody knew? I can’t see how that can possibly be true,’’ said Ortolino. “I can’t believe anybody could be successful in business and overlook such a dramatic condition.’’

With trust eroding, Taylor had another problem. The original financing for Midway had been set up for only five years. The economy had collapsed, and lenders were hesitant to make big loans. As 2010 approached, Taylor said he feared foreclosure.

Keen hired a real estate attorney to work on the co-op issue. This led to an attempt, late in 2009, to convert Midway. The earlier dollar figures were no longer discussed. Units were far more expensive than residents had expected. When Midway asked for a refundable, $1,000 deposit to show who might buy, just 36 residents stepped forward. That group included Rogers.

That wasn’t enough, said Taylor.

“To get financing, banks need to be assured that it’s going to be a residentially owned building for the most part,’’ he said. “So what we were faced with is the unfortunate situation of those who didn’t want or couldn’t buy their co-op, we’d have to kick them out of their apartments. That was a bitter pill for us.’’

Theater space leased

As his company grew, Rogers kept the design group, Artisent, in an office space at Midway but moved the helmet operation, Ops-Core, to a larger space on Summer Street. He began to talk about bringing that side of the business back to Midway last year.

Keen liked that idea. The Discovery Channel, the Boston Conservatory, and Actors’ Shakespeare Project had rented space over the years, but none could sign for as much time or money as Keen wanted.

In 2010, Keen had refinanced, but with a catch. The bank required Keen itself to lease the theater space for $3 million over 10 years, in order to guarantee that income stream. Without a tenant, Keen Development would have to pay $300,000 a year out of pocket.

In September, Rogers signed a five-year deal to lease that theater space with an option to extend to 10. His rent would almost cover the $300,000. Few knew about the arrangement. Not even the BRA was told, even though the agency needed to approve such a change.

On a recent morning, he showed off what he said was an area where helmets, made off site, were simply adorned with straps, pads, or, a new coat of paint. There was nothing to fear, he said.

Despite complaints from residents, the city agreed. Kairos Shen, the BRA’s chief planner, and Bryan Glascock, the acting commissioner of the city’s Inspectional Services Department, toured Ops-Core after the shutdown and felt it posed no danger to residents.

Shen had even worked out a compromise that he was eager to share with residents who attended last week’s community meeting at the nearby Artists for Humanities: Give up the larger space, and the BRA would require Keen to create a smaller dedicated space for a theater.

Shen barely got to share his idea. For more than three hours, artists who live in Midway spoke against the plan. So did state Senator Jack Hart and City Councilor Felix Arroyo.

Then Ortolino took the stage. His friends from the beginning were no longer there, he said. Kartzman moved to Providence in 2011, unable to pay her rent at Midway. Michael Tyrell and his wife did the same.

Ortolino stood in front of the 150 people and reached into his backpack for a piece of paper. It was the original, 2004 e-mail from Burbidge.

He read it aloud. Midway, it said, would be a rental space that artists could buy in five years. There would be retail space on site, the theater, and a café.

“I trusted this document, like many of you,’’ Ortolino said. “So here I am. What is left on that list?’’

The crowd laughed.

“How is this the original mission of Midway?’’ he shouted and turned to Shen and the other officials standing nearby. “That is my question. How do we push the reset button? What do we have to do to get back to the original mission?’’

During the hearing, two Midway artists demanded an apology from Rogers. He didn’t offer one.

Chris Powers, an audio engineer and composer who has lived at Midway since 2009, said in an interview that the Ops-Core controversy may have been a blessing for the way it unified residents after the co-op conversion debacle ripped apart many relationships within the building.

“The David Rogers thing was kind of a unifying point for a lot of people,’’ he said. “I feel like maybe we’re becoming more of a community.’

 ”We celebrate the past to awaken the future”

Boston is a walking city – it’s easy to lose yourself in its narrow cobblestone streets, so embedded in their past.

Article Courtesy of:  Marina Chetner

On a daytime stroll, you’ll pause to admire beautiful brownstones, original storefronts dating back to the 1800’s, and monuments of centuries ago. At night, the streets-capes take on the feel of an old-world Europe – the darkness embraced by the elm trees that line them; made all the more romantic by the gas lamps that illuminate them. There’s no doubt that this city is steeped in a rich history and as proud as Boston is of its roots, it doesn’t wallow in the nostalgia. After all, a creative revival is taking place in its south.

Located in proximity to Boston’s downtown and fringed by Fort Point Channel and Inner Harbor, the neighborhoods of Seaport District and South Boston are just a quick ride across the Summer Street Bridge. The Big Dig – an infrastructure project that was designed to improve traffic flow and better join the city’s neighborhoods, underground – has helped make this part of Boston more accessible from the city’s outskirts as well.

Formerly a hub of maritime activity, the area has been revitalized through the influence of modern architecture and industrial design, with its waterfront now lined with dining, convention and art venues. Proof in point: The Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Society of Architects, Fort Point artists’ community, and the Boston Design Center are all based here – some housed in buildings reflective of imaginative 21^st Century design; others, in conserved and revitalized industrial buildings and lofts of the past.

The urban landscape of Boston is undergoing a progressive transformation. For a city that may have been known more for a skyline punctuated by conservatively designed skyscrapers, and a core marked by a concrete Government Center, it makes for a refreshing and welcome transition.

With all the elements of a cosmopolitan city, it’s the rich history coupled with a fresh dose of culture and design that gives Boston an edge.

Here’s how to spend (just over) 24-hours in Boston on a short break from NY.  NB: Cambridge – home to Harvard and MIT – is a city unto itself; I’ll cover it in a separate post.

3.30pm: A Presidential Approach

Boston is located about a five hours drive from NY. You know you’re close when you see signs for Providence and Cape Cod – the summer vacation spot of the Kennedy’s, and where JFK used to sail. Just before reaching Boston’s downtown, veer off of the I-93 and head to Columbia Point, home to the impressive John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

A treasure trove of information, the building contains an archive of 8.4 million pages of the former president’s papers – personal ones, included. Meander through its many pictorial, audio visual and 3D exhibits showcasing moments in JFK’s life: from the Campaign Trail, to his inauguration as 35^th President of the US, to life told from the First Lady’s point of view. Highlight: the grand finale to the museum’s trail is in the building’s floor to ceiling windowed pavilion. Overlooking Boston Harbor, the space is intended for reflection and inspiration.

The modern design of the museum-library is a testament to its architect, I.M. Pei – even though the memorial was constructed in 1979, it stands the test of time.

5.30 pm: Prison Break

The tour of Boston’s architectural beauty continues as you enter The Liberty Hotel, located in Beacon Hill. Formerly the Charles Street Jail, the 1851-built building incorporates features of its past life, without the kitsch. Deemed unfit for prisoners and closed in 1970; by 2007, the preserved Landmark building was opened as The Liberty Hotel – its exterior restored, its interiors tastefully transformed.

Three levels of balconies embrace the inner circumference of the building and look onto the expansive lobby. Doubled up as a lounge and bar area, this is where the guards used to watch the prisoners. Check-in whilst you sip a glass of champagne, offered upon arrival. As you stand in the midst of its 90-foot rotunda, look up and around – it’s hard not to wonder what went on in this one-time penitentiary. If only the walls could talk.

Original Jail Cell details

6.30 pm: City of Light

Check into your Tower room (in an adjoining modern building), and enjoy the view of the city’s lights from skyscraper heights. Evening turn-down service equals chocolate-on-the-pillow; savor the sweet as you take the last sips of champagne before heading out.

7.30pm: Immersed in Art

The Museum of Fine Arts requires a few days to view, as is expected of such an art institution.

Make use of the late closing time (Wednesday through Friday: 9.45pm) – visit the Modernist Photography exhibition 1910-1950 (through April 1 2012); explore the mummies and other Egyptian artifacts; marvel at Dave Chihuly’s 40-foot-high 10,000-pound Lime Green Icicle Sculpture in the Shapiro Family Courtyard.

If you’re lucky, you may even stumble upon a live portrait drawing session and watch amateur artists in action… and their model, trying his best to sit very still.

10pm: Clinking Cocktails

A must try – the Juniper Blossom cocktail, served in the hotel lobby’s Liberty Bar.

Tanqueray Gin, St Germaine and grapefruit juice – shaken, this is set to be the new Cosmopolitan.

Stave off a morning hangover and order a couple of items from the late night menu.

Highly recommended – the dumplings, served in a bamboo steam box, are so delectable and fresh. Also, the sashimi – generous slices of meaty yellow-tail, topped with pomegranate seeds and sea salt. The food service and quality couldn’t be further from prison standards ~ modern, flavorful and beautifully presented.

The trip ‘home’ is simply an elevator ascent away. Go on, order another cocktail.

9am: Coffee after Bubbles

Begin the day with a soak in the deep tub – if you’re a fan of bubbles, the divine scent of Molton Brown’s Toko-Yuzu bath gel will linger with you long afterwards.

Order a take-away coffee from the hotel’s CLINK restaurant, admire the vestiges of the jail’s original cells while-you-wait, and spend some time exploring the hotel’s design details on your way back to your room. There’s plenty to appreciate: from the huge circular windows that bathe the interior in a soft light, to the exposed brick walls with original cell detailing, to the interior perspective of a reconstructed cupola that sits atop the building.

10am: Charming Charles Street

A little further along Charles Street, walking south of The Liberty Hotel, you’ll encounter its cobblestone pathways and 19^th Century architecture. Lined with boutiques and restaurants, you’ll also have the chance to view the beautiful brownstones of Beacon Hill’s side streets. Pay a visit to the bar that inspired the one in Cheer’s.

11am: Walking the red brick trail

The Freedom Trail is the best way to become acquainted with sites of historical significance during the Revolution.

Leave the car with the hotel valet for the day, and begin the walk from Boston Common, the nation’s oldest park.

The self-guided tour follows a 2.5-mile trail that snakes all the way through the city’s downtown – past gold-domed Massachusetts State House and nearby Granary Burial Ground, where patriot Paul Revere is buried…

…through Quincy Market and the 1742-constructed Faneuil Hall…

…along the restaurant-lined streets of “Little Italy” – their windows decorated with limoncello bottles…

…across the Charlestown Bridge, and uphill to the base of the 221-foot-high Bunker Hill Monument…

… and finally to the USS Constitution – the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy, still afloat.

Mid-Morning Snack Stop:  

Late Morning Snack at ‘Sweet’: try the Boston Cream Pie cupcake, served in the sugar-pink surrounds of a 1920’s inspired sweet-shop.

Particularly noteworthy to see/do:

New England Holocaust Memorial (Stanley Saitowitz): a site dedicated to the memory and reflection of one of the world’s tragedies; its six glass columns recall the 6 main death camps, the six million Jews who died, the menorah of memorial candles.

Six million numbers are etched in glass in an orderly pattern, suggesting the infamous tattooed numbers and ghostly ledgers of the Nazi bureaucracy. nehm.org

Take time to pause and read the quotes of those who survived.

Views of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge from the Charlestown Bridge: Swiss bridge designer Christian Menn conceived the bridge to reflect, with its inverted Y-shaped towers, the shape of the Bunker Hill Monument in neighboring Charlestown. The bridge’s cables are suggestive of a ship in full sail linking it to East Boston as a center of shipbuilding.*

The 294 step climb up the Bunker Hill Monument: the city views from the top are panoramic.

Warning: Your hamstrings will be screaming at you for days afterwards.

3pm: Sea food, and Eat It

Ferry it from Charlestown to Long Wharf, located by the city’s Financial District. Quincy Market is a short walk away – grab a lobster roll and take a leisurely stroll past the concrete blocks of the Government Center that surround the City Plaza, past the side streets of Beacon Hill, and back to the Liberty Hotel. You’ve come full circle.

5pm: Back to the Future

This is the kind of architecture that is progressively changing the look of Boston – the Institute of Contemporary Art’s design received the Harleston Parker Medal for the “most beautiful building” in Greater Boston.

Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the building both “from the sky down,” as a contemplative space for visitors to enjoy art, and “from the ground up,” to provide dynamic public areas. (ICA Visitor Guide)

Visit the institution and view its exhibits. Mental note: it was the ICA that hosted the early shows of such visionaries as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Edvard Munch.

Check out the views of the harbor and Charlestown from the second and third floors of the building’s front facing windows.

At sunset they are really spectacular.

7.30pm: Bamboo and Chopsticks

Back over Fort Point Channel, stroll through the small enclave that is Chinatown. You’ll notice the bamboo plantations and tufts that feature in the Chinatown Park as part of the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway – a walkway punctuated with public art and greenery over a mile-long stretch of Atlantic Avenue.

Have dinner at China Pearl 9 – they serve hard-to-come-by Singapore Noodles, and you’ll appreciate the authentically decorated interior.

Think: red lanterns and white table-clothed banquet-size round tables.

9pm: Head to Cambridge (to be covered soon)

DRIVING TIPS
Boston is difficult to become acquainted with from a first-time driver’s perspective.

A maze of one way streets that intersect ‘Do Not Enter’ signs with extreme regularity; you’ll save a lot of time when armed with a driving map of the city.

Article Courtesy of:  Marina Chetner

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I am an Aussie living in Brooklyn, NY with my husband, Ali. My other great passions are travel and yoga. I live for things that inspire, educate and motivate me.

I started this blog in November, 2011 as a way to document travel; to learn about the different sides of a destination. Blogging has shown me that I enjoy doing what comes most easily to me, and that it to write and research travel; to discover what gives a place/space its character and its edge. Along the way, I was given the most wonderful gift, a Nikon D5000, to further convey those ideas and thoughts. I hope I do justice to the places/spaces I have captured.

Mark Twain’s quote has always pushed me and I reference it often:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did… so throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

I am inspired daily by so many talented bloggers, writers and photographers out there. I hope this blog can inspire, educate and motivate you.

Boston: Put park aside to book hotel work
Says Children’s Museum not ready with design

Boston Children's Museum - Fort Point Channel Boston - Rendering via Children's Museum

The city wants to let the massive Seaport Square project proceed without the developer fulfilling a 6-year-old promise for a waterfront park next to the Children’s Museum.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has asked the state to release developer John Hynes from a timetable that ties the park’s creation to the development of Seaport Square’s Parcel A, where a hotel project is moving ahead.

BRA chief planner Kairos Shen said the recession kept the Children’s Museum from doing design work for the park. The museum has fenced off the 8,000-square-foot tract — known as Parcel E in the $3.5 billion Seaport Square’s master plan — for employee parking and loading.

“To hold back a project that is ready to go on Parcel A because the present owner of Parcel E hasn’t done its due diligence … (is not) a rational way to go about doing this,” Shen said. “We can’t have these unrealistic connections between parcels that are entirely different functions and have entirely different time lines.”

But Boston Harbor Association president Vivien Li worries the park will be left in the dust as Seaport Square takes shape.

“We want to be sure that public amenities are not the last to be finished, but among the first to be done,” said Li, whose organization promotes public access around Boston Harbor. “This parcel is so key because it’s right on Fort Point Channel. If it doesn’t happen now, we’re very concerned that it will be many years before it’s usable by the general public, which would be a shame.”

Shen insisted the BRA will hold Hynes and investment partner Morgan Stanley to the park promise, which the developers inherited in 2006 with the purchase of Frank McCourt’s parking lots.

“The BRA has plenty of leverage … and I assure you Parcel E will be a fantastic parcel when it’s done,” Shen said.

Children's Museum - Fort Point Channel Boston - Photo via Media Crush

Tom Palmer, a spokesman for the developers, said they aren’t trying to shirk their responsibility. “Time frames on the Seaport Square parcels have shifted with the economy, and we are talking with the city and state about when work on Parcel E can be completed at the earliest,” he said.

The museum and Hynes have been in talks recently to determine the park’s cost. The land donated by McCourt was first used as staging space for the museum’s $47 million renovation in 2006 and 2007.

“Then the recession hit,” museum spokeswoman Jo-Anne Baxter said. “Unfortunately that parcel of land, for the time being, is going to have to remain as is until funding is in place.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1405357

By Donna Goodison | Article Courtesy of:  http://www.bostonherald.com

Fort Point mixed-used rehab project wins city approval

Melcher Street Project - Fort Point Channel - Boston MA

City planners voted in favor of a $34 million project that will overhaul a trio of warehouse buildings on Melcher Street in the Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.

The project coordinated by three separate property owners will create about 60 housing — including 27 of the so-called innovation units that are smaller and cheaper and geared toward young tech professionals. Eleven units will be designated as affordable.

The projects covers adjoining buildings at three addresses:

* 63 Melcher, owned by Oregon-based Gerding Edlen, will be rehabbed and converted with six loft-style units, 27 innovation units including four affordable and five affordable artist live/work units.

* 51 Melcher, the taller middle building owned by Boston’s Synergy Investment & Development, will be an office building with ground-floor retail space and a previously planned addition removed.

“The building will be brought back to the way it looked in 1915 when it was constructed,” architect Joel Bargmann said during last night’s Boston Redevelopment Authority board meeting.

* 49 Melcher, owned by Hub real estate investor Archon Group, will be upgraded and switched to residential use with 14 to 23 units starting out as rentals — to take advantage of historic preservation tax credits — but possibly converting to condominiums in the future.

The developers are “making good headway” in lining up a restaurant for the corner of 49 Melcher St., said project attorney Jared Eigerman from Dalton & Finegold in Andover.

Parking for residents will be in the Necco Street Garage to the rear of the properties.

The BRA said the project will create an estimated 150 to 200 construction jobs and 614 permanent jobs.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1404306

By Greg Turner |  http://www.bostonherald.com